LOS ANGELES - Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector Chriss Street took center stage in his civil fraud trial Thursday, testifying for four hours about his tenure as trustee of a bankrupt trucking company.

Street said his acquisitions of two failing truck-trailer manufacturers brought "tremendous benefit" to creditors of the Fruehauf Trailer Corp. He denied claims that he was empire-building, saying that no one – not creditors or lawyers or financial advisors – objected to his strategy at the time.

But the End of the Road Trust, Fruehauf's successor, alleges that Street wasted $7 million that rightly belonged to creditors in an attempt to create a business he could buy for himself. The trust accuses him of fraud and breach of fiduciary duty, and is seeking that money back.

Street was trustee from October 1998 until August 2005, when creditors forced him out. He was elected county treasurer in June 2006.

Testimony ended Thursday, a day earlier than expected. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Richard M. Neiter will rule after getting final written arguments from both sides Feb. 19.

The trust's attorney, Robert Kugler, hammered Street over several transactions that Kugler said subjected the trust to big risks.

One example: In return for a license to use the Fruehauf trademark in Mexico, the trust's Mexican operation, Fruehauf de Mexico, agreed to pay royalties to Wabash National and to not sell truck trailers in the United States. Street stopped payments on the license in 2001 and tried to circumvent the bar on sales to the U.S.

Was it appropriate for a trustee to try to escape a contract? Kugler asked.

"It was in the interest of the" trust's creditors, Street replied.

What if Wabash revoked Fruehauf de Mexico's right to the trademark? Krueger asked.

"Losing the mark was considered catastrophic," Street replied.

Street repeatedly testified that he relied on others to make key decisions. Attorneys advised him to stop paying Wabash, he said.

A commmittee he appointed – including his eventual successor as trustee, Los Angeles money manager Dan Harrow -- decided to tap the Fruehauf pension fund to buy bankrupt Dorsey Trailer Co. in 2001. When Dorsey went bankrupt again in 2004, the federal government seized the pension fund.

"It seems, Mr. Street, like you were trying to build an empire," his attorney, Phillip Greer, said.

"We're trying to make an asset, Fruehauf de Mexico, which had little value, have substantial value," Street answered.

But Kugler said that Street gave creditors less after seven years than they could have gotten at the start.

Kugler cited a 2001 audit – the last one prepared for the trust – which appraised its assets at $21.244 million. Street and Harrow together distributed a total of $19.6 million -- $1.6 million less than the original appraisal.

Street said the original appraisal, done at his order, was much too high.

Forensic accountant Tammy Lyons, the trust's expert witness on damages, testified that Street's actions cost the trust between $6.7 million and $9.8 million. The biggest single loss, $3.2 million, came from money the trust sank into Dorsey before that company failed. But the trust also spent $203,000 on personal expenses for Street that had no business justification, she said.

Among her examples: $950 for a stay at the Ritz Carlton Laguna Niguel, $6,000 for a personal trainer and $36 for a traffic ticket for not having license plates on his Ferrari.

Greer said Lyons failed to account for business advantages Dorsey brought to Fruehauf de Mexico, including the lower prices it negotiated for raw materials. He said she also failed to account for Street's contract with the Mexican company, which Greer said entitled Street to many personal benefits that Lyons wrongly excluded.

In a surprise move, Greer withdrew his own witness on damages, Newport Beach investment banker Dennis Sinclair, after just 20 minutes of questions and repeated objections from the trust's attorneys.

"Looking at the evidence and looking at the testimony of Ms. Lyons, I just concluded that I didn't need" (Sinclair's testimony), Greer said outside court. "I just decided to save a day of testimony."

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